Pat Quinn Attends Oral Argument in Elected School Board Case

CHICAGO – Pat Quinn, Democratic candidate for Attorney General and former Illinois Governor, today attended oral argument ​on Quinn et al v. Board of Education of the City of Chicago, ​a ​lawsuit to require an election for an elected, representative school board on February 26, 2019, the same day as the next Chicago municipal elections.

“Every school board in Illinois has elected members except Chicago,” Quinn said. “Chicago voters have a fundamental, constitutional right to have their voices heard just as every other Illinois voter does.”

The legislature has not acted on proposed legislation for an elected, representative school board. One such bill, HB 1774, would only cause an election for school board members in 2023, five years from now.

“In our lawsuit, we seek immediate relief: an election for Chicago school board members at the same time we elect the Mayor,” Quinn said. “This violation of fundamental voting rights cannot stand.”

Pat Quinn is the lead plaintiff in Quinn v. Board of Education, which was filed on October 5, 2016. The complaint, which is in state court, alleges that the current system constitutes an equal protection violation, a denial of due process rights, and a denial of the right to equal elections.

Quinn was elected as a community member to the local school council of Sayre School in Chicago in 1990.

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